Bagamoyo arts festival opens 28 October in Tanzania, with 146 groups applying to perform

The 44th Bagamoyo International Arts and Culture Festival runs from 28 to 31 October at the grounds of the Bagamoyo Arts and Culture Institute (TaSUBa) in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, with a pre-festival gala on 27 October. TaSUBa announced the dates, Tanzania's state-owned Daily News reported on 2 September.

Gabriel Kiiza, TaSUBa's acting principal, said 146 groups had applied to take part: 104 local groups and 42 international ones. The acts include traditional dance, acrobatics, music, drama, poetry and comedy.

Besides stage performances, the programme includes traditional crafts exhibitions, film screenings, workshops and guided tours of Bagamoyo's heritage sites. Artisans and entrepreneurs will sell cultural products such as beads, baskets, traditional clothing and handicrafts, and visitors will be able to try coastal food and drinks.

Huruma Haule, the festival's chairperson, expects more than 6,000 visitors on the festival grounds. The festival is projected to reach over 900,000 people through television, radio and digital media.

Vision Investment director Ally Nchahaga urged businesses to use the festival to promote their brands and services and to support Tanzania's cultural heritage as part of their corporate social responsibility.

Bagamoyo lies about 70 kilometres north of central Dar es Salaam. The Rio Times, a Brazil-based English-language news site, said in its October guide to Dar es Salaam, published on 4 October, that the trip takes 90 minutes or more by road and that an overnight stay is worth considering for those attending several days of the festival. The guide gives no ticket prices and says prices are available from the organiser.

The festival is older than the institute that now runs it. In a report on the 40th edition on 29 October 2021, The Citizen, a Tanzanian daily, said the festival began in 1982, the year after the Bagamoyo College of Arts was founded, to display the work of the college's students and teachers. Media coverage soon brought in groups from outside, and the festival has had an international character since 1986.

The Tanzanian government set up TaSUBa on 2 November 2007, by Government Notice No. 220 under the Executive Agencies Act, and it replaced the college. Since 2008 the festival has been held in the institute's new theatre, which The Citizen called the largest in East Africa in 2021.